Life Insurance Statistics, Data and Industry Trends
Life insurance provides many American families with an important financial safety net. The life insurance industry is large, and while it may seem stodgy, it is ever-evolving. Forbes looked at statistics that reveal the scope of this industry.
Key Life Insurance Facts
Total premiums paid for individual life insurance totaled $16.2 billion in 2024, according to LIMRA, a financial services research and trade group. This set a record and was the fourth consecutive year that set a record.
The actual number of policies sold in 2024 stayed about the same as in 2023.
All types of life insurance except whole life insurance had positive sales growth in 2024.
There were 134,193,000 individual life insurance policies in force in 2023, according to the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI). There were over 118,000,000 people with group life insurance.
Who Has Life Insurance?
52% of consumers say they own life insurance, whether it’s their own policy or group life insurance through work, according to LIMRA’s 2023 Insurance Barometer study.
Only 45% of Hispanic Americans say they have life insurance.
The majority of parents (59%) say they have life insurance.
The ACLI reports that 57% of people employed in private industry have access to life insurance through their employers.
Uninsured Americans
There are an estimated 102 million uninsured and underinsured adults in the U.S. who say they need life insurance or more of it, according to LIMRA’s 2024 Insurance Barometer study. That’s about 42% of adults. Households that earn under $50,000 a year were most likely (56%) to say they need life insurance.
Buying Life Insurance
The top reasons for buying life, according to LIMRA’s 2023 Barometer study, are:
To cover burial and other final expenses.
To transfer wealth or leave an inheritance.
Because their employer provides it.
A Forbes Advisor consumer survey in 2023 found that many people worry about how their family would pay bills if they died.